


so I wrote you into my verse

by AndreaLyn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 17:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9913973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: It’s the same day Poe sings that song out to the world to coax his soul mate to come to their sleepy little seaside town. Out there, somewhere, someone is thinking of his song with all their heart and soul and mind.Poe's waiting for his song to bring his love to him.





	

_come_  
home to  
me  
my wayward lost  
love 

Poe Dameron has had ocean water in his veins since before he could remember.

The ocean’s waves curve to the shore and call to him where he lives in the bay where the sea-salt air fills his lungs morning, noon, and night. Each and every sound the waves produced were like home to him, because Poe could mimic the lilting melodic nature of them with his words. His father said it was a gift to speak so sweetly and to make people feel like they could drown of happiness from a few words alone. His mother had smiled at him with a degree of sadness and told him to use it wisely.

None of them ever used the word that lives in myth and Poe doesn’t even hear it for the first time until he meets the Governor’s sister when she’s in town to give a speech for her brother.

She speaks with such stunning charisma that Poe feels bowled over. Only eight years old, he watches the crowd around him actually fall back in awe at her words. After the speech, Poe can’t remember a single word, only the way she’d made him _feel_.

“She’s good,” Poe had overheard his father say, when his parents think that he’s gone to bed, “but she’s not as good as you.”

“You know I haven’t used my song on you in years.”

“You don’t have to, my Shara, my song,” his father murmurs. “My siren.”

Hiding around the corner, eavesdropping on conversations he shouldn’t be, Poe is instantly fascinated by this new word. He listens whenever he can to the secrets that he’s probably not supposed to hear, but the whispers start to add up until he thinks he has a good idea about what secrets his mother might be hiding.

Nine years later, at seventeen, Poe sings while sweeping the back porch. It’s an idle song, but it feels like it’s been nagging his mind his whole life. It’s a soft, gentle hum in a minor key, murmuring lyrics he doesn’t remember learning, but feels like he’s known all his life. 

“Come home to me, my wayward lost love,” he sings as the winds carry it over the ocean that juts up against their humble little home. The song seems to go further than it should and when the song dies on his lips, silence sweeps in to fill the void.

It’s why he’s so shocked to see his mother leaning against the back door and watching him with a sympathetic look in her eyes. He hadn’t even heard her approach, yet there she is, like a thing out of the shadows. She reaches out and takes his hand, sitting him down on their little porch set amidst the drooping willow trees.

She tells him about their ancestors and their songs. She uses the word ‘siren’ reverently and speaks of how Poe’s parents are soulmates and that Poe’s beautifully haunting singing voice comes from Shara’s side of the family. 

“And mine? Will mine come to me?” Poe asks, heart thrumming to its own tune like suddenly he’s awoken it with a simple melody.

Shara gives him a fond smile, though it has an edge to it.

“They won’t be able to do anything but think of it, now that you’ve let it into the world.”

That’s the day he learns about a siren’s soul mate song.

It’s the same day Poe sings that song out to the world to coax his soul mate to come to their sleepy little seaside town. Out there, somewhere, someone is thinking of his song with all their heart and soul and mind.

It can drive a person to madness.

It can also lead to the greatest of loves.

Poe can only hope that his soulmate stays strong enough to find him and not lose themselves in the process.

* * *

Miles and miles away, there’s a little boy who looks out to the sky and starts to hum a song for the first time that will stay with him for years to come. He can’t say where he’s heard it or how he knows the words, but it’s the first song he hears in the morning and the last he hears at night.

It stays with him, a steady companion, and Finn closes his eyes and dreams of the sea and the melody that pulls at him every moment of the day.

* * *

It doesn’t take long for Poe to figure out that they’re not the only family of sirens in town. Little clues start to pile up and with his mother’s lessons in his heart and at top of mind, he figures out very quickly that the Governor and his sister (a General in the army) are like him. It’s not something you broach at the grocery store while buying canned goods, but Poe’s nothing if not resourceful and works to set himself up an opportunity.

It takes a summer’s internship worth of work, but by the end of it, he has Governor Skywalker’s attention.

“You don’t talk much,” Skywalker observes of Poe as he shelves books away after one of their working sessions.

Poe’s become careful in recent years. Without meaning to, his words turn melodic and imbued with promise and seduction. He’s broken more hearts than he’d ever planned to, and while he’s been trying to learn control, it’s slow going.

“Did Shara tell you to bite your tongue?”

Poe shakes his head, because his mother had done the opposite. Broken hearts always mend, according to her, and it’s better for Poe to keep his song in the air to make sure his soul mate can still hear it. Poe, cautious of driving several someones mad, tries not to make matters worse. It’d be like piling a flood on top of a fire and he’s just not that kind of guy.

“Poe,” Skywalker coaxes. “It’s just us.”

“Last summer,” Poe starts to talk, his voice rusty and practically singing as it bursts free, “three girls and two guys fell for me. I got a few death threats, which I can handle, but the sobbing? The constant stalking?” He shakes his head. “I figured out that if I don’t speak, they don’t fall in love.” He’s never actually said out loud what he is and Skywalker hasn’t, either, but there’s a tacit understanding of what the other is.

The Governor gives him a scoff. “You realize that looking like you do, you might not have even needed the voice to make them go home crying, right?”

“I’m not that much of a heartbreaker,” Poe insists defensively. “I just want to be able to fall in love by my own choice and not because I felt guilted into it.”

“Look, my sister found someone. Whether that’s her mate or not, she won’t tell me. I haven’t been lucky enough to find my person, but that doesn’t mean I stop talking,” he says. “I figure, you put your song out there and you fall for whoever you want. Just because it’s not your one true love doesn’t mean it matters any less.” Poe’s fairly sure that Skywalker isn’t even using his voice on him, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s soothing and exactly the right thing to say.

He’s beginning to understand why they’ve voted him into office, seeing as he’s not half bad at the whole thing.

“Do me a favor,” Skywalker coaxes. “Before the summer is out, talk to your fellow interns and if it so happens that one of them wants to take you out for drinks, maybe don’t say no.” There’s a gleam in his eyes, like he knows something that Poe doesn’t, but living his life (even with someone who’s not The One) has got to be better than living in this shadow of fear and worry.

“How about you show up at the costume party this weekend and try?” the Governor goes on. “Your mother tells me you’re following the Dameron tradition.”

“That’s right. Artemis,” he says proudly. “The toga and the bow are all ready.”

“Well, at least it’s not a mermaid.”

As the Governor walks away, Poe can hear his muttering fading off.

“Everyone thinks they’re so funny with the mermaids…”

* * *

Finn has never seen a mansion so big before. He supposes that’s what happens when you’re visiting the Governor’s mansion for the first time on a stolen invite, dressed up as a Roman Centurion for the festivities. He hasn’t found Governor Skywalker just yet in this din, but he can hardly tell one person from the next. He’s so used to seeing people in their work-wear that it’s like a layer has been peeled away and everyone who’s become familiar to him over the summer now appear here as strangers.

He’s lived in this town for nearly a year now and it still feels strange to him, like he’s chasing after something that’s just outside of his reach. He doesn’t even know why he’d moved here in the first place. He’d had better job offers and there are prettier towns, but when he’d been visiting this place for the interview, something weird happened.

The minute he got within town lines, it had been like a beautiful song started to call to him. The melody still haunts him from time to time; when he’s not paying attention, he finds himself humming along.

Sometimes, in the office when the lights have all been turned off and it’s just Rey and him, she catches him singing something, but Finn has no clue where he got the lyrics from because it’s not a song he knows the name of and can’t even remember where he’d picked it up.

That feeling that something’s just out of reach has chased him here to this party. “Go explore,” Rey had whispered when they arrived. She’s here dressed as a mechanic – which feels like cheating seeing as she’s studying to be an automotive engineer and mechanic seems a stone’s throw away.

Everything is so lavish and feels like it _hums_ with an energy that makes Finn feel like he’s getting closer to that strange little tune resonating and reverberating in his head. The people around him are immaculately dressed in costumes and wield champagne flutes with expert grace and ease, twirling around Finn.

The music plays on in the other room, but it sounds hollow and tinny to him.

The song he’s hearing isn’t what they’re playing over the speakers, but it feels just as loud. It’s a strange, haunting melody in a minor key that keeps drowning out his thoughts. He turns away from the din of the party noise and heads out towards the main lobby. He’s not sure why he’s so far from the party, except maybe he thinks he can catch his breath and his thoughts at the same time out here. The clock in the front hall chimes heavy and loud, and Finn turns towards it as if the heavy intonations are resonating through his body and soul. It’s in that motion that he glimpses a spark of gold in the corner of his eye. He recognizes the man from work. 

It’s Poe Dameron, Finn’s pretty sure. The other intern barely says a word when he’s around them during meetings, but he’s always keenly watching the situation. He’s smart, obviously, or the Governor would have never hired him, but Finn isn’t sure what he’s like or where his strengths lie, seeing as he doesn’t say a word. On the other hand, he’s definitely the kind of man that gets your attention with ease, not really needing to say anything to get people’s attention.

Even when he’s dressed normally and not in revealing bedsheets, the man can turn heads.

Right now, looking like he’s stepped out of a Greek myth, Finn’s mouth goes a little dry. Without realizing he’s taken a step, he finds himself at Poe’s side, restraining himself from leaning in to share personal space. Poe doesn’t seem to mind, instead just smiling at him with this crazy charming look on his face, as if this happens all the time to him.

It probably _does_ happen all the time. Guys like Poe don’t go lonely.

What happens next, though, is what shocks Finn. 

“Can I get you a drink?” Poe asks, his gaze sliding over Finn’s costume, biting down on his lip. “You stole my costume.”

“I didn’t, I had no id…”

“Don’t worry, it looks good on you,” Poe cuts him off and looks at him with an amused smile playing on the corner of his lips, as if he wants to burst out laughing (what would that sound like? Why can’t Finn stop thinking about that musical laughter?). It’s the most words Finn’s ever heard Poe say, and with them comes an onslaught of melody. It’s the same song that’s been in Finn’s head and all the time that Poe’s speaking, he can’t get it out of his damn head. Talk about a hell of a time to get a song stuck in your head – Finn’s pretty sure that he’s never been talked to by anyone as remotely as hot as Poe before, and he’s on the cusp of ruining it by humming some random earworm absently because he can’t stop thinking about it.

“Yeah,” Finn agrees eagerly. “Yeah, I’m thirsty, I could drink anything. Sure.”

Poe watches him with faint amusement, gesturing to the bar. “Come on,” he encourages. “Beer?”

Finn nods, following after him. Without even realizing it, he’s singing something under his breath. He’s still not sure how he knows the words to this random song, seeing as he’s never heard it before in his life, but somehow it’s like the words have been there for years, planting themselves deeper.

He knows something’s wrong the minute he looks at Poe, though, who’s gone deathly pale.

“Where did you hear that song?” Poe demands, some of the kindness gone from his voice, but Finn feels a strange compelling urge to tell Poe _anything_ he’s ever wanted to know. He’s drifting into Poe’s space again without understanding why. “Stop,” Poe says sharply.

It’s like someone’s yanked him back with strings.

His entire body obeys the command, even though Finn knows there’s no way in hell he’d ever listen to such a firm demand without giving a little push back. Suddenly, that song has gone completely silent in his head. The air between them is charged with something that Finn can’t name, but he’s well aware that there’s fear there.

The strange thing is that it isn’t his. 

Sure, he’s worried about what the hell is going on. Maybe Poe is some kind of hypnosis champion or something? Whatever’s happening, he doesn’t think it warrants the way panic flashes over Poe’s face. “Hey,” Finn starts, reaching out to try and touch Poe’s shoulder lightly, but he ducks away.

“I can’t…I can’t do this.”

Then he’s gone.

It’s all happened so fast that Finn’s left wondering if he hasn’t gone completely crazy and dreamed this up. He’s still stuck in place, looking at the space Poe used to be in when he hears someone joining him. It’s Rey, who’s looking at the still-open door with a puzzled look on her face, which Finn is completely sure is mimicked on his own.

“What happened?” she asks.

“Damned if I know,” Finn admits, shaking his head as the song starts to wind its way back into his head, like a wave rushing in to fill absent space. “Come on, I really need a drink.”

* * *

It turns out that sheer panic over what your song does to someone you’ve just met and might be your mate doesn’t make for a good first impression. Who knew (apart from every single person in the world)? Poe wishes he could say that it’s not his fault that he’d bolted, but he can’t help it. It hadn’t been the fact that someone else had been humming his siren’s song.

Especially not when that someone is Finn, who Poe had been having trouble keeping his eyes off this past summer. The problem had been when Poe had issued a single word and Finn followed it, without flinching, without arguing.

He’s spent his whole life worried about people doing things against their will. What happens if his soulmate is someone that he’s forced to fall in love with him against their will, all because of his song? So he’d run and paced up and down the beach all night, letting the crashing of the waves soothe him until he could think again.

That’s about the time he remembers that his song is only meant to pull in his mate. Yes, it has a certain amount of control, but at the same time, Poe needs to learn control. It doesn’t mean he has to push someone away, especially not when that someone could be so very important. 

“Have you seen Finn?” Poe asks desperately. It’s been a full twenty-four hours since his monumental fuck-up and he’s so desperately worried that he’s ruined all his chances. Poe had come straight from the beach to the office, filled with hungover coworkers who don’t want to be there to discuss the budget on a Saturday, but Finn isn’t there amongst the ranks. 

No one has any idea where he is and Poe’s starting to lose hope when he finds his new best friend.

“I think he took the morning off,” Rey says from where she’s bent over her textbook, tapping a pen against the notes, “said something about going to the bluffs for a walk.”

“You’re beautiful,” Poe says enthusiastically, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and only figuring out that he hadn’t dampened his song when she looks up at him with a look of considerate adoration, like she’s gauging whether to feel something about him. “Tell the Governor I’ll be back in as soon as I can!”

He’s getting a few strange looks, which don’t make sense until Poe figures out that this is the most that he’s said since he’d started working with some of these people. Still, none of them are looking at him like they expect to devour him whole and he’s aiming to take advantage of that with the speed he escapes at.

He heads up to the bluffs that overlook the town, tugging his coat a little tighter around himself. He’s tired from lack of sleep, but he also feels like he’s never seen clearer than he does in this moment. Poe’s made a mistake, he knows, but he also knows that he can fix it. He’s watched his mother and father be happy, he’s even watched the Governor’s sister eke out her own happiness.

Why is Poe so determined to see himself miserable?

Poe’s ready to give up on searching when he realizes that he’s not only been stupid in causing this problem, but being an idiot when it comes to not using the best tool he has at his disposal. He stands facing the ocean and closes his eyes, letting the salt-sea spray cascade over him from the crashing waves below.

He inhales, exhales.

When he opens his mouth, he _sings_ the way he hasn’t for almost a decade, pouring his heart into the siren song that beckons others to him, but it’s not just anyone he’s looking for. He’s looking for the one person who can sing this song back to him. There are boats out there that stop their trawls, beachgoers who start to search for the sound, but when Poe finishes his song, he also feels the distinct and palpable presence of someone behind him on the horizon.

“What is that?”

Poe turns to find Finn standing at the fork in the path, keeping some distance between them. He doesn’t blame him, after what happened last night. If someone ditched Poe like that, he’d be wary too. Still, he can’t help the way that he feels his heart leap in his chest, vaulting forward like he’s recognized the man in front of him for what he is.

“It’s a song,” Poe explains, voice burgeoning with hope and promise, “it’s my song.”

“I’ve known it since I was a kid,” Finn replies, shaking his head. “I’ve barely even said more than a few words to you until last night. How can that be yours? I definitely know it.”

“Have you ever heard of sirens?” Poe can see the question processing and decides to cut him off before they start getting into Disney and Odyssey comparisons. “Sirens are real, but they’re not malevolent spirits that live in the sea and try to drag men to their deaths. They’re just normal people with something special about them. My family, through my mother’s side, are sirens. There are downsides,” he admits, “because sometimes I can’t control who falls for my voice.”

“So, what?” Finn deadpans. “You’re hot and people want you. How does that change because of how your voice sounds?”

Poe definitely likes him, he really does, and he should be wary about the fact that they’ve barely known each other, but just because they share a song doesn’t mean they have to jump to the end of things. “Only one person out there knows my song,” he clarifies. “The person who’s supposed to be my match.”

“Your what, your soulmate?”

“Call it what you want,” Poe allows. “The way it was always explained to me, it’s more that my song brings the person I’m supposed to love to me. Past that? It’s sort of up to me.”

Finn arches his eyebrow and Poe notices how close they’re standing now. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but if last night was an example of how you’re going to play this thing, it’s not going so well.”

“Thanks,” Poe deadpans in return, but laughs in disbelief the moment later. “God, I was an ass, but I was scared,” he admits, feeling like it’s best to be honest if this thing has a chance in hell of moving forward. “You stopped,” he points out. “You didn’t want to, but you did and that’s my fault. I didn’t pay attention and worse, I didn’t stay to explain what had happened. I want things to be equal, I don’t want to use my song, even by accident.” He takes in a deep breath and tries not to think about the words to his song, the plea for his wayward lost love to come home. Instead, he thinks about the hard work his parents put into their relationship and leans on the lessons he’s watched since he was a boy.

Finn looks apprehensive, but _interested_.

It’s enough to give Poe the hope that maybe his next question won’t be shot down automatically. “If I were to ask you out on a date so that I could apologize for taking off at the party, what would your hypothetical answer be?”

“Date, huh?” Finn echoes. “You’re not just using your siren voice on me?”

Poe lifts his brows to point out that if he were, Finn wouldn’t be hesitating when it comes to accepting. He doesn’t want Finn to think that the ending to their story is already written, because he wants to write it together. He doesn’t want to think about what will happen if it doesn’t work out and the song drives Finn around the bend, but he also has the feeling that Finn’s not the kind of man who would let something like that get him down.

“One condition,” Finn says.

“What’s that?”

“No karaoke,” is what Finn says, eliciting a relieved and delighted laugh from Poe. 

“You’re on.”

* * *

“ _Stay with me_ ,” Poe’s voice resonates over the ocean and into the cool night air, “ _my dearest love. Be here, be whole, be mine._ ” There isn’t a cloud in the night sky and the moonlight illuminates the night around them as Finn leans back into Poe’s arms, humming along with his eyes closed, listening as melody surrounds him and wraps him up like a blanket, feeling safe and protected. It’s only the third date, but the first few have been full of promise as they start to build a strong foundation that they can use for the rest of the relationship.

This time, the song isn’t so sad. It’s changed, now, since he’s agreed to figure out what this is between him and Poe. The song is in a major key, happy and lilting with hope and positivity, the prospect of something like a future. 

It’s going back to the start of the song, a chance to begin again. 

It’s _perfect_.


End file.
